College Hoops: Kohler's Wolf recalls playing for Smith

The retired coach passed "peacefully" at his Chapel Hill home Saturday evening, the school said in a statement Sunday from Smith's family.

Michael Jordan shares a moment with Dean Smith, his former coach at North Carolina, during a 1994 ceremony honoring Jordan at the United Center in Chicago. Smith, the North Carolina basketball coaching great who won two national championships, died “peacefully” at his home Saturday night, the school said in a statement Sunday from Smith’s family. He was 83.(Photo11: AP)

Dean Smith, the Hall of Fame innovator who won two national championships at North Carolina along with an Olympic gold medal while coaching some of the game's biggest names like Michael Jordan, has died. He was 83.

The retired coach passed "peacefully" at his Chapel Hill home Saturday evening, the school said in a statement Sunday from Smith's family. He was with his wife and five children. Smith had health issues in recent years and had kept a lower profile during that time.

"It's unfortunate news, it's something we knew was coming, but until you actually confront that he's gone — it's hard to take," said Jeff Wolf, a former Kohler High School basketball standout who played collegiately at North Carolina under Smith from 1976-1980. Wolf's first interaction with Smith involved the coaching great making a recruiting visit to Kohler and speaking with the Wolf family.

"He talked about academics, how they ran things at North Carolina, how family was important, how going to church was important if your family believed that it was important — he didn't really talk too much about basketball," Wolf said. "It was so much more a talk about life than it was basketball, and that left a great impression on me."

In a career that spanned more than 40 years, Smith influenced the game and how it is played in ways that are unrivaled. His "Four Corners" time-melting offense led to the creation of the shot clock to counter it. He was the first coach at North Carolina, and among the first in the segregated South, to offer a scholarship to a black athlete. The now-common "point to the passer," in which a scorer acknowledges a teammate's assist, started in Chapel Hill.

"He was so innovative, so detail-oriented. He had such a great mind and was always thinking and always putting us in situations — we addressed almost any game situation you could think of in practice," said Wolf, who was the 86th overall pick in the 1980 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Bucks. Jeff's brother, Joe Wolf, also was a former Kohler, North Carolina and NBA player. "It was amazing, he would be so calm and call a timeout and say this is right where we want to be at this time and we'd look at each other being down six with one minute left but, if he was telling us, we were believing him that we would go out and win the game, and more often than not we did."

His only losing season came in his first, and he left the game having surpassed Kentucky's Adolph Rupp as the winningest men's basketball coach in Division I history.

Smith led the Tar Heels to 13 Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championships, appearances in 11 Final Fours, five national title games, and NCAA championships in 1982 and 1993. North Carolina won at least 20 games in each of his final 27 seasons, and made 23 consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament.

Along the way, more than 95 percent of Smith's lettermen graduated from one of the nation's premier public universities.

"You really grew to appreciate how special of a person he was and how much he cared for you after you left (UNC). He was always available, if I ever needed anything — just like any other player — he was always just a phone call away," Wolf said. "If we were in North Carolina we would always stop by. He was never too busy, he would always make time, and outside of my parents he was the greatest influence on my life. He was always there. He was always concerned for you as a person."

Smith remained in the background after his retirement, keeping an office at the Dean E. Smith Center — the arena that opened while he was still coaching in 1986. He often consulted North Carolina players as they considered whether to leave school early for the NBA, and would occasionally watch Williams direct practice and take notes. He was hesitant to give them to his former assistant, fearful of suggesting something that might not work.

More than 50 of Smith's players went on to play professionally in the NBA or the ABA, and more played overseas. Among them: Walter Davis, Brad Daugherty, J.R. Reid, Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison. Along with Williams and Brown, the only coach to win both an NCAA and NBA title, former Tar Heels with successful coaching careers include George Karl and Eddie Fogler.

In addition to wife Linnea — who accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom on his behalf from President Barack Obama in November 2013 — Smith is survived by daughters Sandy, Sharon, Kristen and Kelly; son Scott; and several grandchildren.

"We were just lucky to have been coached by a very special man," Wolf said. "He was a great coach, but an even greater man."